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Failed soldier kills examiner
09/11/2007 07:27 - (SA)
Erika Gibson, Beeld
Pretoria - An Air Force candidate officer who told colleagues on Wednesday that he would shoot his examiners if they failed him again, has carried out his threat.
The 37-year-old candidate officer at Hoedspruit Air Force base opened fire with a pistol on two of his instructors at Thaba Tshwane Air Force College in Pretoria, on Thursday afternoon.
Witnesses said he emptied a clip with 15 cartridges, then re-loaded and continued firing.
Lieutenant-Colonel Autham Stevens, a training co-ordinator and father of three, died shortly afterwards from his wounds. He was hit in the chest, arm and leg.
Lieutenant-Colonel Isak Karan, also an instructor and the father of three, is in One Military Hospital in critical condition. He was wounded in the neck, hip and arm.
Karan had an operation on Thursday night and was on a ventilator.
Apparently there was chaos at the scene of the shootings and there was blood everywhere.
Gave pistol to police
The candidate officer apparently walked into Wierda Bridge police station shortly after the shooting and told officers who were getting ready to go to the shooting: "I am the suspect."
He handed his firearm to them.
This was the second time he had failed his officer's course and he had suspected he would be told about it on Thursday.
The students had just had a champagne breakfast to celebrate the end of their course.
The candidate officer and another student who had also failed had been at the breakfast.
The man went to Karan's office first, armed with his 9mm pistol.
The first shots were heard soon afterwards.
He then apparently went into Stevens's office and shot him.
One of the students reportedly saved Karan's life by applying mouth-to-mouth resuscitation until emergency rescue workers arrived.
The Defence Force has confirmed the candidate officer ran to his car, drove off at high speed and handed himself over to police shortly afterwards.
Staff apparently were furious that, in spite of a ban on weapons at the unit, the man had managed to confront the instructors with his firearm.
Some of the staff had previously applied for permission to carry firearms for their own safety, but this had been refused because all the guards were armed.
Family of personnel at the base told Beeld that they were petrified because staff seemed to be at risk every time they reprimanded students or applied standards.
The decision to fail the two candidates had apparently been ratified by higher authorities earlier in the week.
Second shooting at a base
The candidate officer's wife and nine-year-old son visited him in the cells on Thursday night, and apparently all three were sobbing bitterly.
This was the second time this year that disgruntled students have opened fire on their superiors.
The officer commanding Group 24 in Kroonstad, Colonel Grobbie Grobbelaar, was shot by a corporal in June because he would not permit the man to go to Bloemfontein for selection.
Grobbelaar died two days later.
- Beeld
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